yC-NRLF 


■VMV'iv.si'.    '^ 


VlBRAR  y 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

^ALIFORl^^h, 


g-j»3BK7:rcr:saSS:'TajKC*>?ByKlMWg:wyMgEf  MfcW.  ib«.|g 


.^ 


©he   IDaiiu  Xcetiiuil. 


^^^     T 


CELEBRATION 


OF     THE 


119TH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  BIRTH-DAY 


OF 


THOMAS    PAINE 


AT 


CINCINNATI, 


JANUARY  29,  1856. 


PUBLISHED    IN    ACCORDANCE  WITH    THE    RESOLUTIONS, 

BY  THE   COMMITTEE  OP  ARRANGEMENTS; 


CINCINNATI: 

VALENTINE    NICHOLSON    A    CO 

1856. 

PRICE,     1  O    C  E  "V  T  «  . 


®l)c  Ipaiue  ifcstiual. 


CELEBRATION 


OF    THE 


119TH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  BIRTH-DAY 


OF 


THOMAS    PAINE, 


AT 


CINCINNATI, 


JANUARY  29,  1856. 


PUBLISHED    IN    ACCORDANCE  WITH   THE   RESOLUTIONS, 

BY  THE   COMMITTEE  OP  ARRANGEMENTS: 


CINCINNATI: 

VALENTIN'S    NICHOLSON    &    CO. 

1856. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  Committee  of  Arrangements,  for  the  celebration  of 
tlie  119th  anniversary  of  the  Birth-day  of  Thomas  Paine, 
the  Author-Hero  of  the  Revolution,  congratulate  the  liberal 
and  enlightened  portion  of  their  fellow-citizens  on  the  success 
which  has  attended  this  effort  to  do  justice  to  a  great  man's 
memory. 

The  Invitation  of  the  Committee  to  the  Political  and  Reli- 
gious friends  of  Thomas  Paine,  to  join  in  celebrating  his 
Birth-day,  met  with  a  noble  response.  We  were  cheered  by 
harmonious  feelings  and  liberal  contributions.  Men  of  lib- 
eral sentiments,  though  widely  separated  in  their  opinions 
on  political,  social,  and  religious  questions,  joined  heartily  in 
a  great  ovation  to  the  memory  of  an  Honest  Man,  who,  fear- 
lessl}^  and  conscienciously  did  a  noble  work  for  Humanity. 

The  result  was,  one  of  the  largest  and  most  enthusiastic 
celebrations  ever  known  in  our  city.  It  was  ushered  in  Avith 
the  firing  of  artillery,  from  the  hills  which  overlook  Cincin- 
nati, and  from  the  neighboring  city  of  Newport,  on  the  Ken- 
tucky bank  of  the  Ohio  river. 

The  meeting,  which  enjoyed  and  applauded  the  Oration, 
Addresses,  and  Music,  was,  probably,  the  largest  that  ever 
assembled  on  such  an  occasion.  Greenwood  Hall,  the 
great  hall  of  the   Ohio  Mechanics'   Institute,   was   densely 


m 


f^^'iZOxO 


iv  The  Paine  Festival. 

filled,  and  hundreds  could  not  obtain  admission ;  although 
two  other  celebrations  were  in  progress  at  the  same  hour  in 
the  vicinity — that  at  the  Turners'  Hall,  wdiere  the  addresses 
were  in  the  German  language ;  and  one  in  the  neighboring 
city  of  Newport,  Kentucky. 

The  Committee  have  much  pleasure  in  presenting  to  the 
public,  in  a  permanent  form,  this  record  of  a  public  event, 
which,  they  trust,  marks  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  of  Intelli- 
gence in  the  appreciation  of  Worth,  and  of  Courage,  and 
Liberality  in  the  expression  of  our  obligations  to  Public 
Benefactors. 

It  maybe  proper  to  say  that,  in  extending  invitations  to  the 
speakers,  no  restriction  was  made,  and  no  pledge  required. 
Each  was  left  to  the  free,  consciencious  performance  of  his 
individual  duty,  and  is  aloiie  responsible  for  the  sentiments 
advanced.  The  spirit  of  the  occasion  w^as  one  of  Freedom 
and  Toleration. 

The  Committee  would  express  their  thanks  to  all  who  have 
in  any  w^ay  contributed  to  the  Great  Moral  Triumph,  which 
has  been  achieved  in  this  Celebration ;  and  would  encourage 
the  friends  of  Free  Thought  to  renewed  exertions. 


THE 


PAINE      FESTIVAL. 


The  music  of  the  United  States'  Military  Band,  from  the 
Government  Barracks  at  Newport,  Ky.,  welcomed  an  over- 
flowing audience  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  to  Greenwood 
Hall,  which  was  appropriately  decorated  for  the  occasion. 

Isaac  E.  Hedges,  Esq.,  on  taking  the  Chair,  as  President 
of  the  Festival,  addressed  the  assembly  as  follows: 

ADDRESS  OF  THE  PRESIDENT: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — 
I  have  been  unexpectedly  called  upon  to  preside  on  this  occasion ; 
but  while  I  acknowledge  my  inability  to  fill  the  chair  with  the  fit- 
ness the  occasion  demands,  yet  I  am  not  disposed  to  decline  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  such  a  position. 

I  congratulate  you  my  fellow-citizens,  of  every  clime  and  nation,  that 
a  day  has  dawned  upon  us,  when  we  can  assemble  in  such  vast 
numbers,  to  commemorate  the  noble  sentiments  of  one,  who  stood 
out  in  bold  relief  before  the  foes  of  Human  Rights,  whether  they  were 
Kings,  Potentates,  or  Priests.  We  meet,  not  to  worship  men,  but  great 
principles.  We  are  not  idolaters,  or  man-worshipers;  but  we  bow 
humbly,  and  reverence  great  truths  and  holy  principles,  wherever 
they  are  found. 

I  have  no  sacrifices  to  make.  They  have  long  since  been  offered. 
The  natural  tendency  of  my  mind  has  long  since  led  me  to  look  be- 
yond the  boundaries  of  sectarianism,  and  the  popular  creeds  of  the 


vi  The  Paine  Festival. 

day;  and  having  early  read  the  ^'Rights  of  Man,"  by  the  Im- 
mortal Paine,  I  learned  to  consider  it  my  duty  and  my  privilege 
to  embrace  the  truth  wherever  my  reason  found  it, — and  fearlessly 
proclaim  it,  whether  it  was  in  harmony  with,  or  in  opposition  to, 
orthodoxy. 

Let  us  ever  cherish  the  generous  spirit  that  inspired  our  Great 
Champion  of  Human  Rights,  whose  very  soul  oould  not  be  confined 
to  a  single  state  or  country,  but  leaped  over  oceans  to  find  new 
fields  for  its  philanthropic  emotions.  Let  us  ever  prove  faithful  to 
the  trust,  secured  to  our  possession  by  his  untiring  zeal  in  the  cause 
of  our  own  glorious  country,  that  the  "  Crisis  "  that  once  tried 
men's  souls  may  never  again  recur. 

May  the  Sun  of  Liberty,  whose  dawn  was  heralded  in  the  morn 
of  the  American  Revolution  by  Thomas  Paine,  continue  its 
onward  march,  until  it  shall  arrive  at  a  fixed  and  eternal  meridian  I 


Music. — National  Airs,  by  the  Band. 


ORATION. 


BY  T.  L.  NICHOLS,  M.D. 


Mr.  President — Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — I  have  accepted 
with  pleasure  and  with  pride,  the  honorable  position  your  committee 
has  assigned  rae.  It  might  have  been  entrusted  to  one  better  able  to 
do  justice  to  the  demands  of  this  occasion;  but  the  honor  could  not 
have  been  conferred  upon  any  one  who  would  appreciate  it  more 
highly,  or  who  could  feel  more  anxiety  to  perform  worthily  the 
sacred  duty  of  rescuing  from  the  darkness  of  ignorance,  the  blight 
of  bigotry,  and  the  calumnies  of  creed-bound  sectarians,  the  fame  of 
a  man,  who  has  done  more  than  to  ^'  fill  the  measure  of  his  country's 
glory ; "  one  who  has  been  a  hero  and  a  martyr  in  the  cause  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty  throughout  the  world. 

I  respond  cordially,  therefore,  to  the  summons  to  address  you  on 
this  occasion,  and  to  the  sentiments  expressed  in  the  preamble  and 
resolutions,  inviting  you  to  join  in  this  celebration ;  and  I,  a 
stranger  here,  congratulate  you  upon  the  liberality,  freedom,  and 
justice,  which  have  prompted  your  noble  response  to  that  invita- 
tion. 

I  congratulate  Cincinnati,  Queen  City  of  the  West,  that  she  has 
the  mind  and  heart,  the  manly  courage  and  nobility  of  soul,  to 
render  this  tribute  of  justice  to  one  of  the  great  unappreciated  heroes 
of  humanity.  I  congratulate  the  Great  West  upon  the  spirit  of 
freedom  that  breathes  over  her  prairies,  and  flows  onward  with  her 

7 


8  The  Patne  Festival. 

rivers.  I  congratulate  the  country  that  embosoms  this  glorious  home 
of  plenty  and  of  liberty.  I  congratulate  the  universal  humanity  that 
there  is  an  America,  and  a  G-reat  AVest,  and  a  queenly  city  here, 
and  a  people,  so  free,  so  intelligent,  so  generous  and  heroic,  as  thus 
to  celebrate  this  anniversary,  to  vindicate  the  truth  of  history,  and 
help  to  right  the  wrongs  of  half  a  century. 

It  is  right,  that  the  examples  of  courage,  genius  and  philanthropy 
in  the  past,  should  be  held  in  remembrance  for  the  emulation  and 
gratitude  of  the  present  and  the  future. 

It  is  true,  and  it  is  a  part  of  my  duty  to  make  it  manifest  to  all 
who  hear  me,  that  the  life  and  writings  of  Thomas  Paine  prove 
him  to  have  been  a  hero,  a  philosopher,  and  a  philanthropist,  and 
worthy  of  our  admiration  and  gratitude. 

It  is  true,  as  will  abundantly  appear,  that  his  eminent  and  une- 
qualed  services,  in  the  cause  of  American  Independence,  and  of 
Civil  and  Religious  Liberty,  entitle  Lim  especially  to  the  honor  and 
gratitude  of  every  American ;  and  it  was,  therefore,  rightly  and 
nobly  resolved  to  celebrate,  here  and  now,  the  119th  Anniversary 
of  the  Birth-day  of  the  Author-Hero  of  the  Revolution — the  vindi- 
cator of  the  rights  of  man,  and  the  champion  of  Civil  and  Religious 
Liberty,  Thomas  Paine  ;  whose  Common  Sense  awoke  the  Ame- 
rican people  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  whose  Crisis,  in 
the  times  that  tried  men's  souls,  gave  vigor  to  our  arms ;  who 
asserted  and  defended  the  Principles  of  Republican  Liberty  in  both 
hemispheres ;  who  was  the  uncompromising  foe  of  all  despotisms, 
and  the  unwavering  friend  of  Freedom  and  Humanity. 

Most  heartily  do  I  respond  to  this  appeal ;  most  cheerfully  will  1 
present  to  you  all  that  is  needed  to  sustain  it — the  simple  facts  of 
the  Life  of  that  Honest  Man,  whose  birth  upon  our  planet  was  a 
blessing  to  humanity,  and  rendered  illustrious  and  memorable  the 

DAY    WE   celebrate. 

Thomas  Paine,  son  of  an  English  Quaker,  was  born  at  Thetford, 
England,  January  29,  1737.  A  man  of  the  people,  he  received  only 
the  common  rudiments  of  an  English  education,  and  at  the  age 
of  thirteen  was  taken  from  school  to  assist  his  father,  in  his  trade 
of  staymaker. 


The  Paine  Festival. 


A  desire  for  a  more  active  and  adventurous  life  led  him,  shortly 
after,  to  ship  on  board  a  British  privateer,  the  celebrated  ship 
^'  The  Terrible,"  commanded  by  Captain  Death.  But  his  father, 
fearing  to  lose  his  son,  and  being  opposed  to  wars,  as  a  part  of  his 
religious  faith,  made  such  an  appeal  to  his  youthful  feelings,  as 
induced  him  to  return  home,  and  lay  aside,  for  a  time,  his  warlike 
and  adventurous  projects. 

But  his  monotonous  and  distasteful  labor  was  so  ill-suited  to  his 
active  spirit,  that  he  subsequently  joined  the  privateer.  King  of 
Prussia,  and  made  a  cruise ;  of  the  incidents  of  which  he  has  left 
no  record. 

Of  the  heart-life  of  this  man  we  have  no  history.  There  are, 
however,  a  few  facts  which  open  that  life  to  the  imagination  of  the 
sympathetic  reader.  He  was  married  in  1759,  at  the  age  of  22 
years,  and  settled  at  Sandwich,  pursuing  his  trade.  His  wife  died 
at  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  their  marriage.  In  this  love  and  this 
loss,  we  have  the  key  to  much  of  his  later  life.  It  was  a  shock 
from  which  he  seems  never  to  have  recovered.  If  in  his  later  years 
he  seemed  a  cynic,  those  who  have  so  loved  and  suffered,  know 
how  to  forgive. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-four  he  was  appointed  to  a  place  in  the 
excise,  which  he  held  for  thirteen  years.  During  this  time  he 
married  again ;  but  it  was  an  unhappy  marriage  of  convenience ;  or 
rather  of  duty  and  gratitude.  He  married  the  daughter  of  a 
deceased  friend,  and  took  charge  of  his  family  and  business.  This 
uncongenial  and  fruitless  bond  was,  after  a  few  years,  severed  by 
mutual  consent.  So  far  as  is  known,  Paine  lived  through  his  life, 
like  so  many  other  human  benefactors — loveless  and  childless. 
Severed  from  ties  of  family,  they  adopt  the  race,  and  give  to  huma- 
nity those  talents  and  exertions  which  else  might  have  been,  more 
happily  perhaps,  but  less  usefully,  expended  in  the  narrow  circle  of 
a  home.  The  ages  of  the  past  have  been  ages  of  sacrifice,  and  the 
world's  saviors  have  borne  their  crosses,  and  their  crowns  have  been 
crowns  of  thorns. 

In  1774,  at  the  age  of  37,  flying  from  the  scene  of  so  much  uu- 
happiness,  Paine  went  to  London.     Here  he  turned  his  attention 


10  The  Paine  Festival, 


to  scientific  pursuits,  and  among  the  philosophers  with  whom  he 
became  acquainted,  was  Dr.  Franklin,  whose  eminent  practical 
sagacity  recognized  his  fitness  for  the  new  world  ;  and  he  accordingly 
advised  him  to  try  his  fortunes  in  America.  He  followed  this 
advice,  and  his  destiny,  and  came  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  first 
secured  employment  as  editor  of  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine,  for 
which  he  wrote  some  pleasant  essays  and  poems. 

Thus,  in  the  prime  and  vigor  of  his  early  manhood,  chas- 
tened in  the  school  of  adversity,  unperverted  and  uncorrupted  by 
either  a  religious  or  scholastic  education;  a  self-taught,  self-made 
man,  he  found  himself  a  citizen  of  the  New  World,  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  American  devolution.  His  scientific  and  literary  pursuits 
had  introduced  him  to  the  society  of  Franklin,  Rush,  Barlow,  and 
other  eminent  men,  and  he  joined  in  their  discussions  on  the  con- 
dition of  the  colonies,  and  their  relations  to  the  mother  country. 

To  appreciate  the  work  which  Thomas  Paine  was  now  destined 
to  perform,  we  must  remember  the  state  of  afi'airs  at  that  period. 
The  idea  of  liberty  and  independence  had  come  to  but  few  of  the 
foremost  minds  of  that  age.  The  great  mass  of  the  American 
colonists,  both  the  people  and  their  leaders,  were  thoroughly  loyal, 
and  strongly  attached  to  Great  Britain.  They  believed  in  the 
Divine  Bight  of  Kings ;  the  sacredness  of  hereditary  rule,  and  in 
the  obligations  of  loyalty.  But  there  was  also  a  feeling  of  sturdy 
determination  to  maintain  their  constitutional  rights.  In  this  state 
©f  things,  in  1776,  taking  counsel  with  the  leaders  of  the  Repub- 
lican movement,  Thomas  Paine  burst  upon  the  country  with  his 
"Common  Sense."  It  was  a  trumpet  peal,  which  awoke  the 
Colonies  to  the  thought  of  independence,  and  prepared  them  for  the 
contest  in  which  it  was  won.  He  taught  the  people  that  freedom 
and  security  were  the  true  objects  of  government,  and  that  the 
simplest  form,  by  which  these  ends  could  be  attained,  was  the  best ; 
that  "  of  more  worth  is  one  honest  man  to  society,  and  in  the  sight 
of  God,  than  all  the  crowned  rufl&ans  that  ever  lived." 

With  the  religious  faith  and  feeling  which  characterize  all  his 
works,  he  says  : 

"  The  reformation  was  preceded  by  the  discovery  of  America,  as 


The  Paine  Festival.  11 

if  the  Almighty  graciously  meant  to  open  a  sanctuary  to  the  per- 
secuted in  future  years^  when  home  should  afford  neither  friendship 
nor  safety." 

And  after  the  most  cogent  arguments  in  favor  of  independence, 
and  a  free  government,  he  closes  with  this  noble  and  eloquent 
appeal : 

''  0,  ye  that  love  mankind  !  ye  that  dare  oppose,  not  only  tyranny 
but  the  tyrant,  stand  forth  !  Every  spot  of  the  old  world  is  over- 
run with  oppression.  Freedom  hath  been  hunted  round  the  globe. 
Asia  and  Africa  have  long  expelled  her.  Europe  regards  her 
like  a  stranger,  and  England  hath  given  her  warning  to  depart.  Oh ! 
receive  the  fugitive,  and  prepare  in  time  an  asylum  for  mankind." 

The  eifect  of  this  pamphlet,  '^  Common  Sense"  is,  probably,  with- 
out a  parallel  in  human  literature.  The  first  emotion  it  produced 
was  terror — the  next  feeling  was  conviction,  and  then  came  an 
enthusiasm  for  its  principles  that  resulted  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  Contemporary  testimony  is  unanimous  on  this 
point.  The  friends  of  liberty  were  cheered  onward ;  those  who 
wavered  were  made  firm,  and  thousands  were  converted.  ^'  Com- 
mon Sense  "  was  the  knell  of  European  despotism,  and  the  tocsin 
of  American  liberty. 

Paine  did  not  only  write  for  freedom,  but  volunteered  as  a  soldier 
in  the  continental  army, — giving  this  personal  testimony  to  the 
sincerity  of  his  principles.  In  this  position  he  became  the  guest  of 
Washington,  and  the  friend  of  Lafayette  and  the  principal  officers 
of  the  American  army — with  many  of  whom  he  lived  on  terms  of 
intimacy  to  the  close  of  his  life. 

But  the  struggle  of  the  Revolution  was  long  and  severe ;  and 
there  were  times  when  the  bravest  might  well  lose  courage  and  the 
most  sanguine  despair.  It  was  not  enough  to  arouse  the  spirit  of 
the  country — it  required  to  be  sustained.  The  people  were  soon 
tired  of  the  war.  The  militia,  drafted  for  brief  terms  of  service, 
and  unused  to  the  hardships  of  the  camp,  were  leaving  the  army. 
Our  cities  were  occupied  by  the  enemy ;  his  ships  filled  our  harbors 
and  bays,  and  the  frontiers  swarmed  with  his  savage  allies.  In 
this  day  of  darkness  and  despair,  Thomas  Paine  came  to  the  rescue. 


12  The  Paine  Festival. 


It  was  not  Washington,  nor  the  Adamses,  nor  Franklin,  nor  Jeffer- 
son ;  the  men  we  call,  and  rightly  call,  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic, 
who  were  chosen  as  the  instrument  of  Providence,  in  this  emer- 
gency, but  the  calumniated  Thomas  Paine.  His  "  Crisis"  went 
forth  to  the  country  like  the  clarion  peal  of  victory,  in  the  midst  of 
disaster  and  defeat.  It  opens  with  the  inspiration  of  genius,  and  its 
first  sentence  is  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  which  will  reverberate 
through  all  time : 

^^  These  are  the  times  that  try  men's  souls.  The  summer  soldier 
and  the  sunshine  patriot  will,  m  this  crisis,  shrink  from  the  service 
of  his  country ;  hut  he  that  stands  it  NOW,  deserves  the  love  and 
thanks  of  man  and  woman." 

The  disheartened  soldier,  who  was  leaving  the  army,  turned  back 
and  renewed  his  enlistment ;  the  farmer  left  the  plough  in  the  fur- 
row; the  mechanic,  his  unfinished  work  on  the  bench.  Men  and 
means  gathered  around  the  Standard  of  Liberty.  Members  of  the 
Continental  Congress  returned  to  their  post  of  duty.  The  Crisis 
was  read  to  every  corporal's  guard  in  the  army ;  and  courage  and 
confidence  succeeded  to  terror  and  despair. 

A  man  of  the  people,  Thomas  Paine  knew  how  to  appeal  to  the 
popular  heart.  Sincere  and  earnest  in  his  devotion  to  Liberty,  he 
inspired  others  with  the  same  zeal.  His  appeals  were  prompted  by  a 
higher  feeling  even  than  patriotism— by  the  principles  of  Justice, 
and  the  dictates  of  Humanity. 

"  Heaven  knows  how  to  put  a  proper  price  upon  its  goods/'  he 
says,  in  this  remarkable  production,  "  and  it  would  be  strange  indeed, 
if  so  celestial  an  article  as  Freedom  should  not  be  highly  rated. '^ 

'^  I  love  the  man  that  can  smile  in  trouble,  that  can  gather  strength 
by  distress,  and  grow  brave  by  reflection." 

"  We  live  in  a  large  world,  and  have  extended  our  ideas  beyond 
the  limits  and  prejudices  of  an  Island.  We  hold  out  the  right  hand 
of  fellowship  to  the  universe." 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  Thomas  Paine  incited  and  led  on  the 
Revolution,  which  owes  as  much  to  his  single  pen,  as  to  the  swords 
of  all  its  heroes.  At  every  stage  of  that  great  struggle,  he  wrote  a 
new  number  of  the  Crisis,  which  was  distributed  to  the  army  and 


The  Paine  Festival.  13 

country.  Well  has  lie  been  denominated  the  "  Author-Hero  "  of 
the  Revolution  ;  and  well  might  Jefferson  bear  testimony  to  the 
fact,  which  bigots  have  almost  made  the  world  forget,  that  Thomas 
Paine  "  had  done  as  much  as  any  man  living,  to  establish  the  Free- 
dom of  America."  During  the  war,  he  served,  also,  as  Secretary  of 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  of  the  Continental  Congress;  as 
Clerk  of  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania;  he  volunteered  to  be 
one  of  a  party  to  burn  the  British  fleet  in  the  Delaware ;  and  he 
accompanied  Mr.  Laurens  to  France,  and  aided  to  secure  a  loan  of 
ten  millions  livres,  and  a  present  from  the  French  Crown,  of  six 
millions. 

For  these  great  and  inestimable  services,  he  received,  in  1785,  the 
thanks  of  Congress  ;  and  a  pecuniary  remuneration  of  $3,000.  The 
State  of  Pennsylvania  voted  him  five  hundred  pounds  currency ;  and 
the  State  of  New  York  granted  him  a  farm  of  three  hundred  acres, 
at  New  Rochelle.  This  may  have  been  enough  to  satisfy  the  simple 
tastes  of  Thomas  Paine,  but  scarcely  enough  to  evince  the  gratitude 
of  a  magnanimous  nation.  In  his  case,  our  Republic  has  not  been 
merely  ungrateful;  but  it  has  permitted  religious  bigotry  and  pro- 
scription to  cover  with  ignominy,  the  name  of  one  who  deserves 
both  honor  and  gratitude. 

The  war  was  over,  and  Paine  turned  his  attention  to  the  arts  of 
peace.  He  invented  an  Iron  Bridge,  and  went  to  France  and  Eng- 
land to  secure  patents  in  those  countries.  This  project,  which  had 
but  a  moderate  success,  seems  to  have  been  a  means  by  which  Pro- 
vidence led  him  to  new  fields  of  labor  in  the  cause  of  Freedom  and 
Humanity.  It  was  the  period  of  the  French  Revolution,  which 
followed  the  American.  Its  principles  were  attacked  with  eloquent 
sophistries  by  Edmund  Burke,  but  Thomas  Paine  defended  them  by 
publishing,  in  1791,  in  England,  bearding  the  British  Lion  in  his 
den,  his  immortal  work,  ''The  Rights  of  Man.'^ 

In  this  work  he  asserted  the  great  principles  of  Human  Liberty  ; 
eternal,  impregnable,  and  as  fresh  to-day  as  in  all  the  cycles  of  the 
past.  He  overthrew  the  basis  of  hereditary  power,  by  showing  that 
man  never  could  have  the  right  of  binding  or  controlling  his  pos- 
terity by  institutions,  or  governments,  or  creeds,  or  laws. 


14  The  Paine  Festival. 

He  defined  the  natural  rights  of  man,  as  those  which  always  ap- 
pertain to  him,  in  right  of  his  existence.  Life,  itself,  brings  to  every 
being  the  right  of  seeking  his  own  happiness,  or  the  greatest  enjoy- 
ment of  that  life,  which  can  be  exercised  without  injury  to  the  equal 
rights  of  others. 

Thus  every  civil  right  rests  on  natural  right.  Society  and  govern- 
ment are  for  the  guarantee  and  protection  of  every  natural  right ; 
none  are  surrendered ;  but  only,  as  a  matter  of  convenience,  in 
certain  cases,  delegated  to  others. 

"  Public  good/'  he  says  elsewhere,  in  his  Discourse  on  Govern- 
ment, "  is  not  a  term  opposed  to  the  good  of  individuals ',  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  the  good  of  every  individual  collected.  It  is  the  good 
of  all,  because  it  is  the  good  of  every  one.'' 

It  is  this  principle  I  have  tried  to  bring  to  the  comprehension 
of  those  who  are  placing  institutions  above  humanity ;  and  who 
would  have  every  individual  suffer,  for  the  general  good. 

Paine  understood  the  true  basis  of  Human  Society,  or  of  what- 
ever government  or  regulation.it  requires,  in  the  affections  or  attrac- 
tions of  the  Human  Soul — those  Attractions  which,  as  Fourier  has 
said,  are  proportional  to  Destinies. 

^'The  wants  and  affections  of  man,"  he  says,  "impel  him  to 
form  societies." 

"  Formal  government  makes  but  a  small  part  of  civilized  life." 

"  The  more  perfect  civilization  is,  the  less  occasion  has  it  for  gov- 
ernment, because  the  more  does  it  regulate  its  own  affairs,  and 
govern  itself." 

'All  the  great  Laws  of  Society  are  Laws  of  Nature." 

"  Man  has  no  authority  over  posterity  in  matters  of  personal  right. 
All  hereditary  government  is,  in  its  nature,  tyranny." 

^'  All  delegated  power  is  trust— and  all  assumed  power  is  usurpa- 
tion." 

Such  are  some  of  the  fundamental  principles,  announced  in  Paines' 
treatise  on  "The  Rights  of  Man;"  principles  which  have  a  wider 
application,  it  may  be,  than  he  suspected — principles  which  are 
universal  and  unchangeable — because  true  ;  for  there  are  axioms  in 
social  and  political  science,  as  in  mathematics. 


The  Paine  Festival.  15 

No  man  ever  comprehended  the  Age  in  which  he  lived,  and  the 
great  thought  and  work  of  that  Age,  better  than  did  Thomas  Paine, 
and  no  man  has  given  clearer  evidence  of  genius  or  inspiration. 
Thus  he  says : 

"  The  present  Age  will  hereafter  merit  to  be  called  the  Age  of 
Reason,  and  the  present  generation  will  appear  to  the  future  as  the 
Adam  of  a  New  World." 

"  An  army  of  principles  will  penetrate  where  an  army  of  soldiers 
can  not ;  it  will  succeed,  where  diplomatic  management  will  fail ;  it 
is  neither  the  Rhine,  the  Channel,  nor  the  Ocean,  that  can  arrest  its 
progress ;  it  will  march  on  the  horizon  of  the  world,  and  it  will 
conquer." 

Such  was  this  man's  faith  in  principles ;  such  his  consciousness 
of  the  power  of  truth ;  for  he  believed  that — 

'^  Such  is  the  irresistible  nature  of  truth,  that  all  it  asks,  and  all 
it  wants,  is  the  liberty  of  appearing." 

Has  any  man,  in  any  Age,  given  utterance  to  a  more  sublime 
faith  ? 

And  these  principles,  stated  with  great  clearness,  and  supported 
by  a  power  of  illustration  that  rendered  them  irresistible,  are  radical, 
fundamental,  and  universal.  They  are  the  basis  of  all  right ;  and 
opposed  to  every  wrong.  The  most  advanced  reformer  of  this  day 
does  no  more  than  to  extend,  to  a  wider  and  more  comprehensive 
sphere,  the  application  of  the  principles  of  the  "  Rights  of  Man," 
as  stated,  and  in  the  statement  demonstrated,  by  Thomas  Paine.  It 
was  this  work  that  excited  Mary  Wollstonecraft  to  write  her  noble 
*'  vindication  of  the  Rights  of  Woman."  And  these  principles,  the 
basis  of  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence,  and  its  claim  to 
the  great  rights  of  ^'  Life,  Liberty,  and  the  Pursuit  of  Happiness," 
have  only  to  be  carried  out  to  their  legitimate  ultimations,  to  accom- 
plish for  Humanity  that  integral  and  Universal  Freedom  which  is 
the  condition  of  Progress,  Development,  Harmony  and  Happiness. 
Political  independence  and  reforms  in  Government  did  not  satisfy 
his  principles  or  his  philanthropy.  Paine  was  a  Socialist.  He  pressed 
upon  legislators  the  duty  of  securing  to  all  men  the  means  of 
happiness ;  of  protecting  the  rights  of  honest  poverty  against  the 


16  The  Paine  Festival. 

usurpations  and  plunderings  of  wealth  ;  and  while  his  writings 
against  superstition  and  priestcraft,  brought  upon  him  the  hatred  of 
sectarians,  his  Essay  on  Agrarian  Justice  offended  the  wealthy  and 
aristocratic.  But  Paine,  like  every  other  man  who  is  in  advance  of 
his  own- age,  must  look  for  justice  to  posterity. 

The  publication  of  the  Rights  of  Man  in  England,  brought  upon 
Paine  the  prosecution  of  the  Crown ;  but  while  he  was  waiting  the 
result  of  a  trial,  he  was  informed  by  an  embassy  from  France,  that 
he  had  been  elected,  with  several  other  distinguished  personages,  a 
citizen  of  the  French  Republic,  and  also  by  the  citizens  of  Calais, 
a  member  of  the  National  Convention.     Called  to  this  new  field  of 
labor,  he  left  England,  and  published  an  address  accepting  the  honor 
of  citizenship,  and  the  post  of  Representative.     He  was  a  member 
of  the  Convention,  in  that  stormy  period;  he  voted  and  spoke  in 
favor  of  the  trial  of  Louis  XVI.,  but  his  humanity  revolted  at  the 
idea  of  unnecessary  bloodshed,  and  he  earnestly  opposed  the  execu- 
tion of  the  King,  and  asked,  as  a  favor  to  America,  that  he  might 
be  permitted  to  come  to  this,  country,  and  end  his  days  in  peace. 
This  brave  effort  to  save  a  human  life,  and  the  life  of  a  King,  caused 
his  own  imprisonment,  in  the  reign  of  terror,  and  his  own  condem- 
nation to  the  guillotine,  from  which  he  providentially  escaped.  I  say 
l)TOvidentially,  for  such  was  his  own  belief. 

We  come  now  to  a  consideration  of  that  portion  of  the  life  and 
work  of  this  extraordinary  man,  which  has  doomed  him  to  the 
calumnies  and  execrations  of  the  ignorant  and  fanatical ;  but  which, 
when  truly  examined,  will  be  considered  as  honorable  and  useful  as 
any  portion  of  his  career.  He  had  been  the  instrument  of  Provi- 
dence, in  the  birth  of  the  Great  Republic  ;  he  had  struck  a  blow 
at  Hereditary  Rule,  and  the  Divine  Rights  of  Kingly  Despotisms 
in  Europe,  from  which  they  can  never  recover.  He  had  now  another 
war  to  wage  with  intolerance,  bigotry,  and  religious  proscription  and 
persecution. 

Thomas  Paine  was  a  religious  man.  Born  a  Quaker,  while  free 
from  sectarian  creeds,  he  inherited  a  spiritual  impressibility.  He 
was  a  man  of  intuitions.  In  our  day  he  would  be  called  a  Spirit- 
ualist— he  would  be  claimed  as  a  Medium. 


The  Paine  Festival.  17 

This  is  not  mere  assertion — his  writings  contain  abundant  evi- 
dence of  all  I  assert.  First,  of  what  I  term  his  mediumship,  or 
susceptibility  to  spiritual  impressions,  I  quote  a  paragraph  from  the 
Age  of  Reason,  in  which  he  says  : 

*'  There  are  two  distinct  classes  of  what  are  called  thoughts ;  those 
that  we  produce  in  ourselves  by  reflection  and  the  act  of  thinking, 
and  those  that  bolt  into  the  mind  of  their  own  accord.  I  have 
always  made  it  a  rule  to  treat  those  voluntary  visitors  with  civility, 
taking  care  to  examine,  as  well  as  I  was  able,  if  they  were  worth 
entertaining ;  and  it  is  from  them  that  I  have  acquired  about  all 
the  knowledge  I  possess.'' 

Mr.  Paine  had  his  religious  convictions,  and  he  was  faithful  to 
them.  He  intended  to  write  a  work  on  religion,  to  devote  to  it  his 
matured  powers,  and  to  publish  it  toward  the  close  of  his  life,  mak- 
ing his  dying  testimony  an  evidence  of  the  sincerity  of  his  opinions. 
But  the  Reign  of  Terror,  that  inversion  of  the  Revolution,  whose 
internal  history  has  never  yet  been  truly  written,  by  making  his 
death  probable  at  any  time,  hastened  this  work.  He  could  not  leave 
the  world  without  bearing  his  testimony  ;  consequently,  in  France, 
with  the  guillotine  flashing  death  upon  him  ;  with  his  friends  falling 
on  the  right  and  the  left,  and  his  own  life  in  imminent  peril,  he 
sat  down  to  compose  the  "  Age  of  Reason.''  Let  us  take  his  own 
solemn  declaration  of  the  motives  of  that  work.  The  people  of 
France,  he  says,  oppressed  for  ages  by  religious  superstition  and 
despotism,  were  rushing  into  the  opposite  extreme  of  a  blank  athe- 
ism. Paine  wrote  the  Age  of  Reason,  to  prove  the  existence  of  a 
God  and  immortality ;  and  I  know  of  no  work  extant,  in  which 
these  two  articles  of  his  creed  are  more  powerfully  and  convincingly 
sustained. 

He  wrote  the  first  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  including  the  criti- 
cisms on  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  without  a  Bible  or  Testament 
to  refer  to ;  hurried  by  the  prospect  of  the  threatening  guillotine; 
and  six  hours  after  it  was  finished,  he  was  arrested.  He  gave  the 
manuscript  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Barlow,  on  his  way  to  prison, 
that  it  might  not  be  lost.  If  there  ever  was  a  dying  testimony, 
this  is  one,  for  his  death  seemed  inevitable. 


18  The  Paine  Festival. 

Eleven  months  of  imprisonment  was  terminated  by  the  death  of 
Robespierre,  and  his  own  restoration  to  his  seat  in  the  convention. 

In  his  earlier  works,  Paine  had  advocated  Keligious  Liberty  as  a 
right  of  Humanity.     In  the  "  Hights  of  Man,'^  he  says ; 

"  The  first  act  of  man,  when  he  looked  around,  and  saw  himself 
a  creature  which  he  did  not  make,  and  a  world  furnished  for  his 
reception,  must  have  been  devotion,  and  devotion  must  ever  continue 
sacred  to  every  individual  man,  as  it  appears  right  to  him." 

Elsewhere   he  says: 

^'  Religion  is  man  bringing  to  his  maker  the  fruits  of  his  heart, 
the  offering  of  his  adoration.  It  is  the  equal  right  of  all,  to  do 
this  in  his  own  way,  and  the  grateful  tribute  of  every  heart  is 
acceptable  to  the  Almighty.'' 

These  are  the  words  of  the  Infidel,  Thomas  Paine.  But  in  the 
^^Age  of  Reason"  he  defines  his  own  belief;  in  that  book  he  says  : 

"  I  believe  in  one  God,  and  no  more ;  and  I  hope  for  happiness 
bejT-ond  this  life." 

"  I  do  not  mean  by  this  declaration  to  condemn  those  who  believe 
otherwise.  They  have  the  same  right  to  their  belief  as  I  have  in 
mine.  But  it  is  necessary  to  the  liappiness  of  man,  that  he  he  men- 
tally faithful  to  himself'' 

The  literature  of  the  world  does  not  contain  a  more  beautiful 
declaration  of  tolerance  of  the  opinions  of  others,  and  the  duty  of 
fidelity  to  our  own. 

"  I  trouble  not  myself,"  he  says,  ^'  about  the  manner  of  future 
existence.  I  content  myself  with  believing,  even  to  positive  convic- 
tion, that  the  power  that  gave  me  existence  is  able  to  continue  it,  in 
any  form  or  manner  he  pleases,  either  with  or  without  this  body ; 
and  it  appears  more  probable  to  me  that  I  shall  continue  to  exist 
hereafter,  than  that  I  should  have  had  existence,  as  I  now  have, 
before  that  existence  began." 

"  The  consciousness  of  existence  is  the  only  conceivable  idea  we 
can  have  of  another  life — and  the  continuance  of  that  consciousness 
is  immortality." 

But  he  did  not  believe  the  Bible,  you  say.  So  much  of  it  he  be- 
lieved; all  of  it,  he  certainly  did  not.    He  says  of  the  Old  Testament : 


The  Paine  Festival.  19 


"  It  is  a  history  of  wickedness,  that  has  served  to  corrupt  and 
brutalize  mankind ;  and,  for  my  own  part,  I  sincerely  detest  it,  as  I 
detest  every  thing  that  is  cruel.'' 

And  holding  to  this  belief,  he  had  no  power,  as  an  honest  and 
most  consciencious  man,  to  conceal  it  from  his  fellow-men.  Thomas 
Paine  was  not  only  no  hypocrite,  but  he  was  no  selfist,  time-server, 
or  coward.     He  knew  his  work,  and  he  did  it.     He  said  : 

^' When  a  man  has  so  far  corrupted  and  prostituted  the  chastity  of 
his  mind,  as  to  subscribe  his  professional  belief  to  things  he  does  not  be- 
lieve, he  has  prepared  himself  for  the  commission  of  every  other  crime." 

But  if  Paine  did  not  believe  in  all  that  is  contained  in  the  Bible, 
he  did  believe  in,  and  most  truly  reverenced,  the  \Vord  of  God. 
Here  is  his  own  statement : 

^'  The  Word  of  God  is  the  Creation  we  behold,  and  it  is 
in  this  word,  which  no  human  inventors  can  counterfeit  or  alter, 
that  God  speaketh  universally  to  man." 

Elsewhere  he  says : 

"  The  creation  we  behold  is  the  real  and  ever  existing  word  of 
God,  in  which  we  can  not  be  deceived.  It  proclaims  his  power;  it  de- 
monstrates his  wisdom  ',  it  manifests  his  goodness  and  benevolence." 

And  he  wrote  his  "  Age  of  Reason,"  the  most  abused,  perhaps, 
of  all  human  productions,  with  this  noble  purpose  : 

"  To  relieve  and  tranquilize  the  minds  of  millions,  and  free  them 
from  hard  thoughts  of  the  Almighty." 

A  noble  purpose;  a  sublime  faith;  a  consciencious  endeavor; 
what  can  we  ask  more  ? 

Thomas  Paine  was  a  man  of  great  honesty  of  purpose,  as  well  as 
freedom  of  thought.  He  did  what  he  believed  to  be  right,  acting 
under  a  noble  sense  of  duty,  and  caring  little  for  consequences  to 
his  person  or  reputation.  In  this  he  was  an  example  to  all  reform- 
ers— a  resolute,  heroic  character,  whom  those  who  hate  must  still 
respect.  His  sentiment,  in  the  Rights  of  Man,  respecting  the 
squandering  of  public  money,  is  a  lesson  which  too  many  of  our 
politicians  need  to  study.     He  says  : 

''  Public  money  ought  to  be  touched  with  the  most  scrupulous 
consciousncR',  of  honor.     It  is  not  the  produce  of  riches  only,  but 


20  The  Paine  Festival. 

tho  hard  earnings  of  labor  and  poverty.  It  is  drawn  from  the  bit- 
terness of  want  and  misery.  Not  a  beggar  passes,  or  perishes  in 
the  street,  whose  mite  is  not  in  that  mass/' 

Few  men  have  seemed  so  unselfish  as  Paine.  He  was  poor,  and 
though  a  small  copy -right  on  "  Common  Sense"  would  have  enriched 
him,  he  gave  it  to  the  legislatures  of  the  several  States.  He  made 
a  donation  of  each  number  of  the  Crisis  to  the  cause.  He  refused 
large  sums  for  his  "  Rights  of  Man,"  that  it  might  be  circulated  in 
cheap  editions,  throughout  Great  Britain.  He  never  pressed  his 
claims  upon  the  country  for  his  unequally  and  almost  wholly  unre- 
quited services.  The  three  thousand  dollars  given  by  Congress  was 
a  remuneration  for  sacrifices,  and  it  was  left  to  the  State  of  New 
York,  to  provide,  by  her  moderate  but  sufficient  bounty,  for  the 
wants  of  his  declining  years. 

In  regard  to  the  character  of  Thomas  Paine,  we  have  the  follow- 
ing testimony  from  Joel  Barlow,  a  gentleman  of  high  position  and 
distinguished  talent.  Mr.  Barlow  says  he  was  "  one  of  the  most  be- 
nevolent and  disinterested  of,  mankind.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
instructive  men  I  have  ever  known ;  charitable  to  the  poor,  beyond 
his  means,  and  a  sure  protector  and  friend  to  Americans  in  distress 
in  foreign  countries. 

"As  to  his  religious  opinions,  as  they  were  those  of  probably 
three-fourths  of  the  men  of  letters  of  the  last  Age,  and  of  nearly 
all  those  of  the  present,  I  see  no  reason  why  they  should  form  a 
distinctive  character  in  him." 

I  am  not  inclined  to  claim  for  him  this  undistinctive  character. 

Paine  is  distinguished — nobly  and  heroically  distinguished  from 
nearly  all  the  men  of  letters,  in  that  age  and  this,  by  his  conscience 
and  courage.  He  saw  and  knew  as  well  as  we  see  now,  that  had  he 
concealed  his  religious  convictions  in  deference  to  popular  senti- 
ment, he  would  have  been  honored  and  applauded,  instead  of 
defiimed  and  calumniated.  Had  he  bowed  to  the  church,  or  even 
kept  silent,  a  mantle  of  charity  would  have  been  spread  over  any 
human  errors  or  weaknesses,  and  his  name  would  have  been  heard 
in  every  blast  of  the  trump  of  fame,  and  swelled  in  capitals  in 
every  Fourth  of  July  oration.     Had  he  been  a  politic,  a  worldly,  a 


The  Paine  Festival.  21 

selfish,  a  dishonest  man,  he  would  have  done  this  :  but  he  was  too 
unselfish,  too  honest,  too  faithful  to  his  interior  convictions,  his 
sense  of  duty,  and  the  leadings  of  Providence  to  shrink  from  his 
work,  though  it  might  lead  to  ignominy  and  martyrdom. 

Outlawed  by  the  British  Grovernment,  whose  cruisers  covered  the 
seas,  and  who  searched  for  him  in  vessels  in  which  it  was  supposed 
he  had  taken  passage,  Mr.  Paine  returned  with  difiiculty  to  the 
United  States,  in  1802.  Outlawed  by  the  priesthood,  and  pious 
people  of  this  country,  he  lived  in  New  York  and  its  vicinity  seven 
years,  in  comparative  obscurity  and  isolation,  suficring  in  age,  dis- 
ease, and  loneliness,  all  the  calumnies  that  a  fanatical  malice  could 
heap  upon  him,  and  an  ingratitude,  for  which  it  belongs  to  us  to  make 
a  tardy,  but  sincere  reparation.  He  died  at  the  age  of  72,  in  a  firm 
belief  in  the  principles  he  had  held  through  his  life,  and,  of  conse- 
quence, in  the  assured  hope  of  a  blessed  immortality  beyond  the  grave. 

Such  was  the  life,  and  such  the  character  and  doctrines  of  this 
man.  Had  he  been  less  honest,  less  philanthropic,  less  entitled  to 
the  admiration  and  gratitude  of  mankind,  the  whole  world  would 
have  sung  his  praises ;  and  we  should  not  have  been  required  to 
demand  of  a  creed-darkened  age,  Justice  to  the  Memory  op 
Thomas  Paine. 

And  there  shall  be  justice,  honor,  and  immortality  to  the  memory 
of  this  man,  when  the  names  of  some  to  whom  Peans  are  now  shout- 
ing, shall  be  lost  in  oblivion.  When  the  tyrants  and  despots  ot 
mankind  are  no  more  feared ;  when  king-craft  and  priest-craft  are 
no  more  honored ;  when  usurpation  and  oppression,  bigotry  and 
superstition,  the  frauds  of  the  crafty  and  the  plunderings  of  the 
powerful,  no  longer  spread  ignorance,  poverty,  vice,  and  misery  over 
the  earth,  then  will  free,  enlightened  men  do  justice  to  the  memory 
of  Thomas  Paine.  And  no  true  justice  can  be  done  to  him,  until 
we  come  to  the  realization  of  the  principles  he  taught.  We  honor 
a  conqueror,  when  the  conquest  is  achieved.  We  celebrate  a  triuinpli 
when  the  victory  is  won.  The  heroes  of  American  Independence, 
who  were  satisfied  with  that  achievement,  have  received  the  honors 
awarded  by  a  grateful  country.  But  the  greater  work,  and  the 
nobler  ambition  of  this  man  of  principles,  is  yet  to  be  accomplished. 


22  The  Paine  Festival. 


It  is  the  future  that  will  witness  his  triumph,  and  from  the  future 
will  come  his  full  reward. 

It  was  not  enough  for  him  that  America  was  free — he  asked  the 
freedom  of  universal  man.  It  was  not  enough  that  victory  perched 
upon  the  starry  banner  of  the  new  republic;  wherever  the  flag  of  free- 
dom was  unfurled,  there  was  his  post  of  duty.  His  country  was  the 
world;  his  sympathies  were  with  the  oppressed  of  every  land ;  his  great 
heart  would  have  given  freedom,  hope,  and  happiness  to  all  mankind. 

"When  man  shall  be  free  from  the  rule  of  despots  and  des- 
potic institutions ;  free  from  the  chains  of  superstition  and  the 
terrors  of  religious  proscription  ;  free  from  the  creeds,  and  bigotries, 
and  fanaticism  of  the  ages  of  ignorance  and  credulity ;  free  from 
intolerance,  injustice,  and  oppression  of  every  kind,  then  will  the 
life,  and  thought,  and  character  of  Thomas  Paine  be  understood,  and 
his  memory  duly  honored. 

Let  us  do  our  duty  as  bravely,  as  earnestly,  as  unselfishly,  as 
unflinchingly  as  he  did  his.  Let  us  honor  the  memory  of  this 
heroic  man  by  living  the  principles  he  taught;  by  resisting  every 
oppression  and  injustice,  and  ceasing  to  be  oppressive  and  unjust. 
It  is  by  giving  vitality  to  the  principles  of  a  man  that  we  pay  the 
the  highest  honor  to  his  memory. 

The  time  is  coming  when  the  true  reformers  of  mankind  shall  be 
honored  as  they  deserve.  America  will  repent  of  her  ingratitude. 
She  will  rise  above  the  mists  of  error  that  have  obscured  her 
vision.  Free  from  the  bondage  of  a  foreign  yoke,  she  will  throw 
ofi"  the  shackles  that  fetter  her  mind  and  heart ;  and  when  she  has 
comprehended  a  true,  integral  freedom,  that  recognizes  every  right  of 
humanity,  she  will  be  ready  to  do  the  justice  we  demand.  The  his- 
torian who  writes  for  that  future  will  record  the  services  of  Thomas 
Paine.  On  the  roll  of  fame  which  that  future  shall  emblazon,  no 
name  of  the  past  shall  brighten  with  a  clearer  luster,  in  the  constella- 
tion of  heroic  benefactors,  his  star  shall  shine,  immortal  as  his  Principles. 

'^  And  the  "  Common  Sense"  of  mankind  shall  triumph  in  the 
'^  Crisis"  of  this  great  contest  for  universal  freedom ;  and  Thomas 
Paine  shall  find  justice,  when  an  ^^  Age  of  Reason"  shall  inau- 
gurate the  ^'  Rights  of  Man  ! " 


ADDRESS  OF  F,  HASSAUREK,  ESQ. 


Mr.  President — 

A  LITTLE  flock  of  snow  begins  to  roll  from  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tain ;  rolling,  it  augments  and  waxes  greater  and  greater,  till  it 
becomes  that  formidable  mass,  which  precipitates  itself  into  the  dale, 
sweeping  along  with  it  the  animals  of  the  forest  and  the  shepherd  of 
the  Alps,  breaking  off  the  heaven-kissing  oak  and  the  mighty  rock, 
burying  finally  the  cottages  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  and  carrying 
death  to  the  unfortunate  peasant,  who  was  not  aware  of  the  danger, 
which  rapidly  hastened  to  his  ruin.  And  yet  this  tremendous, 
irresistibly  destroying  mass  was,  in  its  beginning,  a  little  flock  of 
snow. 

Such  is  the  course  of  Truth.  Solitary  and  alone,  it  may  live  for 
centuries  in  the  minds  of  a  few.  The  prejudices  of  the  masses  are 
aroused  against  it.  A  hundred  times  it  may  be  put  down  by  the 
brutal  force  of  despotism  or  succomb  to  the  slanders,  calumnies,  and 
persecutions  of  ignorance  and  bigotry.  Unfortunate  will  be  the  fate 
of  those  who  dare  to  proclaim  it  to  a  benighted  world.  But,  sir, 
like  that  little  flock  of  snow,  it  waxes  and  waxes — it  gains  one  inch 
of  ground  after  the  other,  it  enlightens  the  heads  and  electrifies  the 
hearts  of  men,  till  it  becomes  an  irresistible  power,  sweeping  every 
thing  before  it,  and  annihilating  the  impotent  knaves  who  undertake 
to  resist  it.  Lies  may  triumph  a  thousand  times — it  is  not  forever — 
truth  will  and  must  prevail.  The  chariot  of  history  is  forward 
bound,  and  forward  it  goes  in  spite  of  all  delays,  crushing  the  holy 
or  unholy  hands  of  those  who  try  to  take  hold  of  its  spokes. 

We  are  assembled  here  to-night,  to  witness  the  mighty  progress 
of  truth.  There  was  a  time,  not  long  ago,  when  the  name  of  Thomas 
Paine  was  only  heard,  if  some  priestly  bigot  used  it  in  a  sermon,  to 

23 


24  The  Paine  Festival. 

cover  it  with  cursing,  slander,  and  abuse.  There  was  a  time,  when 
the  friends  of  Thomas  Paine  had  to  go  to  a  private  room  and  to  close 
the  doors  behind  them,  if  they  intended  to  celebrate  his  birth-day. 
There  was  a  time,  when  it  was  considered  an  evidence  of  the  utmost 
depravity,  to  sympathize  with  his  views  and  principles.  There  was 
a  time,  when  in  a  city  like  Cincinnati,  you  would  not  have  found  a 
dozen,  or  perhaps  not  half  a  dozen  of  men,  who  had  the  moral 
courage  to  avow  that  they  were  Paine  men.  But,  sir,  I  say  it  with 
a  rejoicing  heart,  this  time  has  ^Dassed  away.  Amidst  the  night  of 
superstition  we  see  the  morning  dawn  of  the  "Age  of  Reason." 

The  times  have  changed.  We  now  see  the  birth-day  of  Thomas 
Paine  celebrated  by  a  vast  and  respectable  concourse  of  people. 
We  hear  the  roaring  of  the  cannon,  echoing  a  national  salute  on  that 
solemn  occasion.  We  see  thinking  men  of  all  classes,  willing  to  do 
justice  to  the  memory  of  a  man,  to  whom  this  republic  is  indebted 
more  than  to  any  other  for  its  liberty.  We  see  many  who  do 
warmly  sympathize  with  the  principles  of  that  noble  Apostle  of 
Freedom,  whose  motto  it  has  been,  "  the  woj^ldis  my  country^  to  do 
good  my  religion." 

Sir,  it  is  with  feelings  of  gratitude,  that  every  friend  of  this 
country  should  remember  the  name  of  Thomas  Paine.  You  all 
know  that  even  in  the  year  1775,  but  a  few  men  in  the  colonies 
thought  of  independence,  and  even  those  few  did  not  dare  to  speak 
out  their  sentiments.  The  people  in  general  did  yet  adhere  to  the 
crown,  notwithstanding  the  wrongs  they  had  suffered  from  it ;  they 
were  proud  to  be  citizens  of  Great  Britain,  and  only  to  maintain 
their  rights  as  such,  they  had  taken  up  arms  against  the  mother 
country.  But  still  they  tried  every  means  to  bring  about  a  recon- 
ciliation. Still  they  relied  on  the  fairness  of  the  king  and  did  not 
dream  of  dissolution.  But,  sir,  when  the  last  petition  of  Congress 
was  even  refused  an  answer  by  the  crown ;  when  a  foreign  legion 
was  enlisted  to  force  the  colonists  to  an  unconditional  surrender ; 
then  a  general  terror  pervaded  their  minds — nobody  knew  what  steps 
to  take,  what  course  to  pursue.  Amidst  this  general  confusion  and 
helplessness,  a  little  pamphlet  appeared,  which,  like  a  sudden  light- 
ning, flashed  up  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  at  once  pointed  out 


The  Paine  Festival.  25 

the  only  way  on  which  they  had  to  resolve  for  the  maintenance  of 
their  safety,  the  preservation  of  liberty,  and  the  acquisition  of  happi- 
ness and  grandeur.  Till  now  they  were  Britons — this  pamphlet 
with  the  irresistible  power  of  truth,  taught  them  to  be  Americans. 
This  immortal  pamphlet  was  the  '^Common  Sense"  of  Thomas  Paine. 
Its  consequence  was  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence. 

And,  Sir,  when  at  the  end  of  the  year  1776,  the  American  army 
was  defeated  at  Long  Island  ;  when  General  Washington  was  forced 
to  retreat  to  New  York,  leaving  Fort  Washington  and  Fort  Lee  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy ;  when  even  the  most  courageous  began  to 
falter,  when  company  after  company  disbanded,  and  the  people  were 
about  to  give  up  all  hopes  of  final  success ;  at  that  dark  hour  of  trial 
a  little  tract  appeared  headed  "The  Crisis/'  signed  "  Common 
Sense"  and  beginning  with  those  memorable  words  :  "  These  are 
the  times  that  try  men's  souls"  And  so  wonderful  was  the  effect 
of  that  tract,  that  the  old  enthusiasm  was  instantly  revived.  The 
deserting  soldiers  hastened  back  to  their  colors,  the  disbanded  legis- 
lators of  New  York  assembled  again,  and  a  new  strength  of  resistance 
pervaded  the  people.  The  effect  of  that  tract  was  the  defeat  of  the 
British  army.  And  whenever  the  battle's  fortune  changed,  when- 
ever the  soldiers  began  to  flinch,  Thomas  Pajne  wrote  another 
number  of  the  "  Crisis,"  thus  inflaming  the  patriots  to  new  deeds  of 
heroism.     So  we  can  justly  say, 

Without  the  pen  of  Thomas  Paine, 
Washington's  sword  had  fought  in  vain. 

But,  Sir,  not  only  with  the  pen  did  he  render  services  to  the 
country  of  his  choice,  to  liberty  and  to  mankind ;  he  also  took  the 
musket  on  his  shoulder,  enlisted  himself  into  the  army  and 
fought  the  battles  of  freedom.  And  not  only  his  life  did  he  offer 
on  the  altar  of  American  Independence,  not  only  the  emanations  of 
his  genius  did  he  extend  to  the  people,  for  he  never  took  payment  for 
any  of  his  writings ;  yea,  his  money  also,  if  he  had  some,  was  ready 
whenever  material  aid  was  needed.  At  the  height  of  financial  dis- 
tress, when  it  was  remarked  in  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  by 
one  of  the  members,  that  it  would  be  best  to  give  up  the  war,  if 


26  The  Paine  Festival. 


there  was  no  money  to  carry  it  on ;  Thomas  Paine,  he  then  being 
Clerk  of  that  body,  ojDcned  a  subscription,  which  he  headed  himself 
by  subscribing  his  entire  salary.  This  generous  example  was  fol- 
lowed, and  $300,000  were  realized,  by  which  a  bank  could  be  created 
and  the  exigencies  of  the  moment  defrayed.  Such  were  the  merits 
of  Thomas  Paine.  Such  was  his  character.  Such  deeds,  Sir,  should 
entitle  him  to  a  high  place  in  the  hearts  of  all,  that  are  true  to 
freedom. 

Why  is  it  then,  that  the  name  of  such  a  man  is  cursed  with 
villainous  abuse  and  slander  ?  Why  is  he  treated  with  such  an 
ingratitude  ?  Why  do  even  historians,  affecting  impartiality,  ignore 
Lis  name  as  much  as  they  absolutely  can  ?  Why  are  there  no  pro- 
cessions, invitations,  and  illuminations  on  his  birth-day  ?  Why  are 
his  merits  unknown  to  a  people  on  whom  he  bestowed  but  infinite 
blessings  ? 

It  is  because  he  has  written  the  "  Age  of  Reason."  And  what  is 
the  Age  of  Reason  ?  Why,  it  is  the  truth  !  But,  Sir,  how  can  the 
truth  be  welcome  to  those,  loho  feed  on  lies  ?  If  men  should  follow 
their  own  reason  and  stand  on  their  own  feet,  instead  of  using 
mental  and  moral  crutches,  what  would  become  of  authorities  ? 

By  liis  "  Age  of  Reason,"  Thomas  Paine  has  offended  a  class  of 
men,  to  whom  nothing  is  so  dangerous  as  reason,  who  fear  n.othing 
but  the  truth.  And,  Sir,  because  they  could  not  refute  the  argu- 
ments of  his  work,  they  blackened  the  character  of  the  author,  they 
soiled  his  honor  with  calumny  and  invented  lies,  to  disgrace  his 
memory. 

This  is  the  old  policy  of  priestcraft.  They  slander  those  whom 
they  can  not  refute.  If  you  prove  them  an  undeniable  truth,  they 
will  call  you  a  thief.  If  you  show  them  an  undisputable  historical 
fact,  bearing  testimony  against  their  ambitious  and  avaricious  aims, 
they  will  charge  you  with  having  committed  a  forgery.  If  you 
expose  their  contradictions  and  the  absurdity  of  their  teachings, 
they  will  call  you  a  murderer.  They  will  never  go  into  your  argu- 
ments ;  no.  Sir,  they  will  try  to  kill  you  off  morally,  and  to  soil  the 
most  unimpeachable  character,  by  the  spots  of  calumniation. 

These  are  the  tactics  of  the  Church  in   its  warfare  against  its 


The  Paine  Festival,  27 

enemies.  For  this  reason,  the  struggle  against  error,  superstition, 
and  bigotry  is  so  hard  a  one,  because  the  Church  uses  every  means, 
be  it  as  dark  as  it  may  be,  to  discourage  those  who  engage  in  it.  The 
Church  will  not  be  satisfied  to  ruin  your  reputation;  no,  Sir,  your 
business  must  be  injured,  your  earnings  impaired,  and,  if  possible, 
your  fortune  destroyed.  These  are  the  tactics  of  those  who  pretend 
to  be  followers  of  the  man,  who,  dying  on  the  cross,  tendered  for- 
giveness to  his  enemies. 

And  now.  Sir,  I  ask  you  whether,  instead  of  cursing  the  infidel, 
you  ought  not  to  esteem  the  man,  that  has  the  moral  courage  to  face 
those  persecutions,  and  in  spite  of  them  to  persevere  in  what  he 
believes  to  be  right  ?  Oh!  if  I  would  go  to  Church,  notwithstanding 
my  infidelity,  if  I  would  wring  the  hands,  elevate  the  eyes  and  cry : 
*'  0,  Lord  !  what  a  sinner  I  am  ! "  then  all  would  be  right.  Then 
the  Church  would  have  no  objection  against  me.  But  because  I  say 
what  I  think,  because  I  do  not  conceal  ray  sentiments,  I  must  be 
exposed  to  abuse  and  persecution.  What  is  the  gist  of  that  ?  The 
gist  of  it  is,  that,  not  true  men  are  wanted,  but  hypocrites.  AVhether 
you  believe  or  not,  no  body  cares  for,  if  you  only  affect  to  believe. 
You  may  think  what  you  please,  but  you  must  not  tell  it.  You 
may  entertain  what  ideas  you  choose,  but  you  must  not  damage  the 
holy  trade  of  the  Church,  by  expressing  them. 

Can  such  a  state  of  things  last  forever  ? 

No,  Sir,  it  can  not. 

Let  some  fifty  or  hundred  years  be  elapsed,  and  posterity  will 
laugh  at  our  follies.  For  in  the  more  enlightened  centuries  which 
will  come,  mankind  will  smile  at  our  delusions,  as  we  smile  at  the 
mythological  fiibles  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  Romans,  or  Greeks. 
Posterity  will  be  astonished  at  the  idea  that  men,  living  in  the  age 
of  the  telegraph  and  of  steam,  could  have  believed  that  G  od  needed 
six  days  to  make  the  world  out  of  nothing,  and  that  he  rested  on 
the  seventh.  That  he,  the  all-merciful,  condemned  a  whole,  yet 
unborn  race,  because  their  grand-ancestor  had  eaten  an  apple ;  that 
he,  the  most  benevolent,  gave  the  first  man  a  command,  whose  viola- 
tion he,  who  knows  every  thing,  must  have  foreseen ;  that  he,  the 
Almighty,  had  no  other  means  to  redeem   mankind  from  the  con- 


28  The  Paine  Festival. 

sequences  of  his  own  severe  judgment,  than  to  kill  his  own  son  for 
an  offence,  which  another  had  committed ;  that  this  son  was  borne  by 
a  mother  who  remained  virgin  after  having  been  delivered  of  a 
child  ;  that  some  three  or  five  loaves  of  bread  and  a  few  fishes  were 
sufficient  to  feed  several  thousand  men,  women,  and  children,  and 
yet  to  gather  twelve  baskets  full  of  remainders ;  that  the  walls  of 
Jericho  fell  at  the  sound  of  Joshua's  trumpets  ;  that  Elias  rode  to 
heaven  in  a  fiery  coach.  Yes,  Sir,  posterity  will  smile  at  the  cre- 
dulity of  millions  of  adults  who,  though  they  were  in  full  possession 
of  their  senses,  could  believe  in  such  absurdities. 

Believe !  Do  they  really  believe  ?  This  is  an  important  ques- 
tion. I  venture  to  say,  Mr.  President,  though  it  may  be  an  auda- 
cious assertion,  that  not  one  half  of  those  whom  you  may  find 
visiting  the  churches,  paying  high  rent  for  their  pews,  and  affecting 
such  a  zealous  piety,  that  they  are  always  ready  to  throw  stones  on 
the  "  dark-hearted  '^  infidel,  as  they  call  him  ;  that  not  one  half  of 
these  men,  Mr.  President,  do  really  believe  themselves,  what  they 
charge  us  with  not  believing.    • 

We  live  in  the  age  of  hypocrisy.  It  is  much  more  easy  to  wor- 
ship the  prejudices  of  public  opinion,  than  to  oppose  them.  It  is 
more  comfortable  to  be  with  the  great  mass,  than  with  a  persecuted, 
slandered  minority.  It  is  more  easy  to  conceal  our  inmost  thoughts 
and  sell  our  convictions,  than  to  openly  proclaim  them  before  the 
eyes  of  the  world.  There  is  one  great  want  in  the  ordinary  man — 
it  is  the  want  of  moral  courage.  Thus,  wrong  is  sanctioned ;  thus 
even  many  a  thinking  man  shrinks  at  the  idea  of  seceding  from  the 
broad  and  regular  course  of  custom,  and  hence  he  flatters  prejudice 
and  bows  to  superstition,  so  that  he  might  not  be  made  an  outcast 
of  society,  anathematized  by  those  dark  powers,  who  affect  to  rule 
the  minds  and  consciences  of  men. 

But  there  is  yet  another,  and  I  believe  the  main  reason,  to  which 
the  power  of  superstition  is  to  be  ascribed.  You  will  find  it  in  the 
relations  of  business  and  trade.  It  is  one  of  the  exigencies  of  a  well 
conducted  house,  firm,  or  concern,  that  its  owner  belong  to  some 
orthodox  Church.  It  is  sometimes  far  more  profitable  for  him  to  be 
frequently  seen  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  by  his  congregated  brethren, 


The  Paine  Festival.  29 


than  to  insert  his  card  into  the  columns  of  a  newspaper.  The 
physician  wants  patients,  the  lawyer  clients,  the  merchant  customers ; 
why  should  they  not  profit  by  the  occasion  of  acquiring  a  whole 
stock  of  the  desired  patronizers,  by  becoming  members  of  a  Christian 
congregation.  It  is  not  Jehovah j  they  worship ;  it  is  the  golden 
calf. 

Christ  was  sold  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver ;  and,  Sir,  there  are  men, 
calling  themselves  Christians,  and  being  acknowledged  as  such,  who 
would  sell  him  for  a  dime  !  They  are  wandering  books  of  account, 
having  a  ledger  in  the  place  of  their  brains,  and  a  fire-proof  iron  safe 
in  the  place  of  their  hearts.  Religion  is  nothing  to  them,  but  an 
account,  whose  Dr's  by  far  overbalance  its  necessary  Cr's,  and  so,  as 
they  have  to  pay  for  rent,  gas,  clerk,  stock,  taxes,  etc.,  they  pay 
the  fees  of  membership  and  the  rent  of  a  pew  in  their  respective 
churches. 

There  are  none  of  that  class  here  this  evening.  They  would  not 
visit  such  a  celebration,  not  even  for  the  sake  of  curiosity.  They 
affect  a  holy  horror,  and  utter  with  elevated  eyes — '^  I  thank  thee, 
0  God,  that  I  am  not  like  other  men  !  '^ 

But,  Sir,  if  there  are  so  many  who  don't  believe  what  they  pre- 
tend, you  will  ask  me,  who  does  ?  There  are  many  who  do.  But 
why  ?  Because  they  have  never  investigated.  They  never  reflected. 
They  took  it  for  granted  that  what  they  believed  was  true,  and  so 
they  never  happened  to  trouble  their  minds  with  doubt.  They  pre- 
fered  to  follow  the  broad  path  of  custom,  instead  of  thinking  for 
themselves.  There  are  thousands,  I  am  sure,  who  only  lacked  the 
impulse  inducing  them  to  meditation.  Had  they  had  that  impulse, 
they  would  be  with  us  in  fact,  or,  at  least,  in  sympathy. 

But  who  should  give  that  impulse  ?  The  Press  ?  Is  the  Press  at 
liberty  to  speak  out  its  sentiments  ?  It  is  not.  Now,  suppose  the 
editors  of  all  the  city  papers  were  infidel-s,  as  in  my  private  opinion 
they  really  are ;  suppose  they  were  all  Paine  men,  who  fully  en- 
dorsed the  sentiments  of  this  meeting,  could  they  come  out  to-morrow 
and  tell  it  to  their  readers  ?  Could  they  report  that  there  was  an 
enthusiastic  meeting,  which  did  justice  to  the  memory  of  a  great, 
but  villified  and  slandered  man  ?     Could  they  defend  the  merits  of 


30  The  Paine  Festival. 

that  man  against  his  blinded  or  bigotted  assailants  ?  No,  Sir,  they 
could  not,  and  even  if  they  would,  they  would  expose  themselves  to 
the  hatred  and  persecution  of  an  almighty  clergy ;  they  would  expose 
themselves  to  the  slings  and  arrows  of  prejudice  and  fanaticism;  they 
would  lose  a  majority  of  their  subscribers — each  being  afraid  of  being 
suspected  as  an  infidel,  should  he  take  an  infidel  paper;  they  would 
lose  their  job  and  advertising  patronage,  and  thus  soon  ruin  their 
business  and  peril  their  existence. 

Thus,  the  Press,  kept  in  such  a  state  of  dependence,  is  forced 
hypocritically  to  disguise  its  own  sentiments ;  it  can  not  express  its 
real  views,  but  must  ignore  the  truth  and  yield  to  injustice.  En- 
tertaining, perhaps,  the  same  opinions  which  are  expressed  by  this 
meeting,  it  can  not  dare  to  say  so.  Such  is  the  power  of  prejudice 
and  superstition;  such  is  the  power  of  the  Church  in  a  country 
where  no  union  of  Church  and  State  is  said  to  exist. 

It  is  said  that  we  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience.  Yes,  Sir,  it  is  so, 
if  we  belong  to  the  regular  old  line  "  Christianity .''  But  not  if  we 
are  ^*  bolters.^'  You  may  be  the  most  honest  and  upright  man,  a 
tender  father  and  a  virtuous  husband ;  you  may  be  a  benefactor  to 
the  poor  and  a  counselor  of  the  oppressed ;  you  may  have  bestowed, 
like  Thomas  Paine,  infinite  blessings  upon  your  country,  and  on 
humanity.  If  you  have  not  the  right  kind  of  religion,  if  you  dare 
to  think  in  your  own  way,  instead  of  bringing  your  mind  to  a 
priestly  foundry  and  letting  it  be  molded  into  the  form  of  a  creed, 
you  will  be  hated,  slandered,  and  persecuted. 

But,  Sir,  night  can  not  last  forever.  Once  the  sun  must  rise. 
And  a  sun  will  rise,  whose  light  will  banish  all  the  reverend  owls 
and  bats,  who  can  do  their  preying  work  in  darkness  only.  Sooner 
or  later,  mankind  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  priests  are  an 
unnecessary  evil ;  that  they  have  brought  but  mischief  and  misery 
into  the  human  family ;  that  they  have  sown  the  seeds  of  discord 
between  men  and  men  ;  exciting  bloody  wars  and  cruel  persecutions 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  their  lusts,  their  avarice,  and 
ambition ;  that  they  have  carried  on  an  incessant  warfare  against 
truth  and  reason,  kindling  the  wood-piles  and  inventing  the  tortures 
of  the  inquisition;  that  they  always  have  stood  on  the  side  of  des- 


The  Paine  Festival.  31 

potism,  proiiing  the  human  mind  to  submission  and  servility ;  that 
they  have  delayed  the  progress  of  the  human  race,  by  keeping  up 
ignorance  and  superstition;  that  they  have  upset  virtue  and  justice 
and  sanctioned  hypocrisy. 

When  mankind  will  come  to  that  conclusion,  vrhen  the  bright 
sunshine  of  truth  will  have  dispersed  the  clouds  of  error  and  decep- 
tion, then,  Mr.  President,  the  29  th  of  January  will  be  remembered 
as  the  birth-day  of  one  of  the  noblest  martyrs  of  the  holy  cause  of 
Freedom. 

To  do  good  icas  his  religion !  Can  there  be  any  nobler,  any 
higher,  any  shorter  creed,  than  this  ?  It  needs  no  costly  edifices  of 
worship ;  it  needs  no  fanatical  priests,  it  needs  no  pews  nor  sextons. 
An  intelligent  mind  and  a  well-meaning  heart,  is  all  it  requires.  To 
do  good  was  his  religion  !  Aye,  ye  bigots,  who  stand  outside  of 
this  hall,  pointing  at  the  windows  and  cursing  the  so-called  infidels 
that  are  assembled  here,  can  you  say,  with  your  hearts  excited  by 
hatred,  bigotry,  and  passion,  and  inflamed  by  the  spirit  of  persecu* 
tion,  can  you  say  that  your  religion  consists  in  doing  good  ?  No, 
you  can  not.  Well,  then,  learn  from  the  man  whose  memory  you 
blacken,  that  true  religion^  which  you  entirely  lack,  notwithstand- 
ing your  creeds,  churches  and  priests.     Mark  his  words — 

"He  that  can  not  reason  is  a. fool, 
He  that  will  not  reason  is  a  bigot, 
He  that  dares  not  reason  is  a  slave." 

The  ball  is  in  motion  and  will  not  stop.  A  time  will  come  when 
the  memory  of  Thomas  Paine,  instead  of  being  cursed  by  ignorant 
fanaticism  and  malicious  bigotry,  will  be  blessed  by  an  enlightened 
and  intelligent  posterity.  A  time  will  come  when  the  Birth-day  of 
Thomas  Paine  will  be  observed  as  a  national  holiday;  a  time 
will  come  when  those  principles  for  which  Paine  has  struggled 
with  indefatigable  perseverance  and  untainted  disinterestedness,  will 
achieve  their  final  victory  over  the  enemies  of  freedom ;  a  time  will 
come,  when  no  persecution  for  opinion's  sake  will  disgrace  the  human 
family  ;  when  you  will  not  be  exposed  to  malice  and  slander,  because 
you  do  not  believe,  what  a  man  with  a  long,  black  coat,  a  solemn 


82  The  Paine  Festival. 

countenance  and  a  white  cravat,  commands  you  to  believe ;  a  time, 
"when  there  vi^ill  be  no  reflections  of  hatred  cast  upon  you,  because  you 
choose  to  make  use  of  your  own  reason,  instead  of  submitting  to  t-he 
authority  of  an  old  Jewish  book,  full  of  contradictions,  absurdities 
and  immoralities ;  a  time  will  come,  when  a  man  will  not  be  pro- 
scribed, because  he  happened  to  be  born  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  ocean ;  a  time  will  come,  when  a  human  being  will  not  be 
made  a  slave,  because  the  skin  of  his  parents  was  a  little  darker 
than  that  of  those  who  affect  to  be  his  masters. 

When  this  time  will  have  arrived,  an  enlightened  mankind,  I 
repeat  it,  will  bless  the  memory  of  the  author  of  the  "  Rights  of 
Man." 


MUSIC: 

"THE  STAR  SPANGLED  BANNER," 

BY    :i^HE    BAND. 
SINGING: 

GERMAN    SONG, 

BY  THE   UNION   CHOIR. 


The  opening  Address  of  the  President,  the  Oration  of 
Dr.  Nichols,  and  the  Address  of  Mr.  Hassaurek,  were 
greeted  with  frequent,  general,  and  hearty  applause.  Dr. 
Nichols  then,  in  behalf  of  the  committee,  reported  the  fol- 
lowing Resolutions,  which  were  unanimously  adopted : 


The  Paine  Festival.  33 


FURTHER   PROCEEDINGS. 


After  the  delivery  of  the  Oration,  the  Marseilles  was  played 
with  admirable  effect,  by  the  United  States  military  band,  of  the 
government  barracks  at  Newport,  Kentucky ;  and  an  able  and 
eloquent  address  delivered  by  Frederick  Hassaurek,  Esq., 
Editor  of  the  German  ^'  HocJiwcechier ; "  after  which  Dr.  Nichols, 
in  behalf  of  the  committee,  reported  the  following  resolutions,  which 
were  unanimously  adopted  : 

RESOLUTIONS 

Resolved,  That  the  genius,  integrity,  and  philanthropy,  the  de- 
votion to  principles,  and  the  unequaled  services  of  Thomas  Paine, 
in  the  cause  of  American  Independence  and  the  Rights  of  Man, 
entitle  him  to  national  honors,  and  ^^  the  love  and  thanks  of  man  and 
woman." 

Resolved,  That  we  commend  to  all  Reformers,  Educators,  and 
Legislators  the  study  of  the  Principles  of  Civil  and  Religious  Liberty 
contained  in  the  writings  of  Thomas  Paine,  viz  :  that  freedom  and 
security  in  the  exercise  of  every  right,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness, are  the  great  objects  of  society  and  government ;  and  that 
religious  belief,  like  every  involuntary  and  spontaneous  act  of  the 
human  mind,  should  be  free,  under  the  only  rightful  limitation  of 
freedom  —  its  exercise  not  infringing  upon  the  equal  right  of 
another. 

Resolved,  That  every  usurpation  of  power,  by  monarch,  oligarchy, 
priesthood,  or  majority,  is  a   despotism;  that  every  government, 


M  The  Paine  Festival. 

law,  institution,  or  custom  is  tyrannical,  which  interferes  with  the 
natural  rights  of  man,  and  hinders  individual  prosperity  and  hap- 
piness. 

Resolved,  That  the  individual  man  is  sovereign  over  all  his  insti- 
tutions ;  that  we  accept  and  reaffirm  the  great  principle  asserted  by 
the  author  of  the  ^^  Ptights  of  Man,"  that  men  have  no  right  to  bind 
posterity,  with  constitutions,  governments,  laws,  institutions,  creeds, 
systems,  or  customs  :  therefore  it  is  the  ever  sacred  and  indestruc- 
table  right  of  every  human  being  to  choose  for  himself,  as  if  such 
things  had  never  existed,  that  form  of  government,  society,  and 
religion,  which  commends  itself  to  his  reason,  and  promises  to 
promote  his  individual  happiness )  such  right  being  exercised  with 
a  due  regard  to  the  equal  right  of  every  other  individual. 

Resolved,  That  we  distinguish  between  the  Christianity  which  is 
the  representative  expression  of  the  moral  virtue,  and  physical,  and 
mental  achievement  of  civilization,  and  the  Christianity  of  blind 
superstition,  clashing  creeds,  bigotted  sects,  and  ignorant  and  intol- 
erant fanatics,  which  has  filled  the  world  with  persecution  and 
bloodshed,  and  opposed  every  advance  in  science ;  which  fetters  the 
limbs,  darkens  the  mind,  and  hardens  the  heart  of  humanity ;  which 
is  a  stumbling  block  in  the  path  of  progress,  and  the  great  e^mbodi- 
ment  of  error,  intolerance,  and  despotism. 

Resolved,  That  we  can  respect  the  sincerity,  if  not  the  wisdom, 
of  every  honest  belief;  that  we  desire,  in  the  assertion  of  our  rights, 
to  trespass  upon  no  right  of  another ;  that  we  can  tolerate  every 
thing  but  intolcrence ;  and  war  only  with  the  despotisms,  which 
war  against  the  rights  of  man. 

Resolved,  That  we  earnestly  recommend  to  our  fellow-citizens 
everywhere  the  celebration  of  this  anniversary,  until  men  shall 
become  enlightened,  tolerant,  and  brave  enough  to  do  Justice  to 
THE  Memory  of  Thomas  Paine. 

J.  S.  Boyden,  Esq.,  moved  the  following  additional  resolutions : 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  assembly  are  due  to  the  com- 
mittee of  arrangements ;  the  contributors  of '' material  aid;"  and  to 
the  military  volunteers  who  have  paid  the  honors  of  a  national  salute 


The  Paine  Festival.  85 


to  a  nation's  benefactor ;  to  the  President  and  officers  of  this  meet- 
ing ;  to  the  orators  of  the  day ;  to  the  Union  Choir  and  United  States 
military  band,  of  Newport,  Ky.,  for  their  liberty-inspired  and  inspir- 
ing music ;  and  to  the  independent  press,  which  has  given,  or  may 
give,  publicity  to  our  proceedings. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  meeting  be  presented  to  Major 
Heintzleman,  U.  S.  A.,  for  a  national  salute. 

Resolvedj  That  the  proceedings,  addresses,  and  resolutions  of  this 
celebration  be  published,  in  a  durable  form,  for  general  distribution, 
and  as  a  memorial  of  this  anniversary. 

Music. — National  Airs,  by  the  Band. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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